$12,500
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Description
38" (97 cm.) A portly clown-faced character with
paper-mache head,bald pate,glass eyes with
articulated eyelids and eyebrows,and hinged jaw is
posed standing on a wooden platform alongside
wooden-framed signage with alternating cards. The
clown wears a colorful costume with patterned
tunic and tassel-trimmed breeches. Movements. The
clown nods and turns his head while his right arm
taps (presumably a window to attract passersby)
with a large wooden stick,and his left arm moves
sideways to gesture in a pointing motion. His
eyebrows and lower lip move as his eyes look
right-to-left,all in very exaggerated and animated
movements. The message sign continually rotates
revealing alternately a series of ten display
cards. The animations are directed by five large
brass cams,and the whole is driven by a 220-volt
motor which turns a pulley-driven gearbox. Jouets
et Automates Francais (J.A.F.),successors to
Vichy/Triboulet,circa 1930,this piece also bearing
the name of their English distributor,Binger of
London. Ex-collection Jack Donovan,then Jon and
Andrea Robertson where it appeared in the window
of their Museum of Automata in York,England,until
the museum's closing when it was acquired by Jerry
and Bunny Steinbaum of Beverly Hills where it has
remained until today.